It may not be as much as a billion Canadian dollars (see my blog yesterday about the capital raised by the Canadian bank Desjardins from its members), but it is worth pointing out that the hundred-year-old British cooperative HF Holidays recently reached the milestone of £5m in share capital, doubling the money its shareholder members (34,000 of them) have invested in their cooperative business over the past four years.

I enjoyed reading the account of HF’s lively AGM this year, which attracted about two hundred people. I particularly enjoyed the report of the Q&A session which included the following: “Barbara Tucker of Muswell Hill, London had written asking that the photo of the Chief Executive Brian Smith in the members’ news be used to promote holidays, as he looked healthy and happy.”

Actually Brian Smith has now retired and HF has a new chief executive in Jim Forward. Let’s hope his time in post is a healthy and happy one for the cooperative.